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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
All people are made equal in nature. Hobbes admits that some people are stronger or quicker than others, but when considered collectively, such differences are insignificant and not enough for one person to claim superiority over another. Hobbes also admits that some people have more prudence and experience than others; however, this, too, suggests people are more equal than not, since with equal time and experience, people can claim equal prudence.
Hobbes argues that people are all essentially the same, which is why, in nature at least, no one can claim any power over another unless they take it by force. This belief is why only the sovereign power of a nation can be considered the supreme power, as the sovereign power is made up of the collective power of the people in a commonwealth.
Themes
A definite difference in people is that one person usually finds their own wisdom greater than the next person’s, but since all people generally think this way, Hobbes considers it yet another point of similarity. An equal hope of obtaining some end arises from this equal ability. When two people desire the same object and only one can have it, those two people are enemies, and the destruction of the other is included in their desired end. In this way, the only way one can secure their own conservation is to master as many people as possible to eliminate any power that may endanger them.
Hobbes’s idea of human beings in nature is an “everyone for themselves” mentality. Each individual person represents a distinct and separate threat to one’s existence, since everyone is vying for the same thing—security and sustenance. This mentality generally makes people disagreeable and violent, which also contradicts Aristotle’s philosophy that people are naturally social and helpful.
Themes
In nature, people have no desire to keep company where there is no power to control them. Thus, it is in human nature to fight for three general reasons. First, people fight for competition. They invade others and use violence to master other people and animals. Secondly, people fight because of a need to defend their safety. Thirdly, people fight for glory and reputation, which includes small slights, like minor insults and affronts. People living outside an established and common power are in a state of war, and this state of war includes every person against every person. War, according to Hobbes, does not include only battle, but also the intention or desire for battle. Every other state is known as peace.
In short, Hobbes contends that a state of nature and a state of war are the exact same thing. As a state of war is anything that includes even the intention or desire for battle, and there is always the intention or desire for battle in nature, nature is in a continuous state of war. This point of argument is important in context with the English Civil War and the state of England as a common-wealth. By entering into a civil war, the common-wealth of England was dissolved and has reverted back to a state of nature.
Themes
In nature, there is no industry, no certainty, and no culture. There is no knowledge of science, letters, or arts, and there is no accounting of time. In nature, there is only constant fear and the danger of violence, which makes people “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” It may seem strange to some that nature renders all people savage, but one must only look to their own actions in society for confirmation of such savagery. Before one travels, they arm themselves and make sure they are accompanied, and when they go to bed at night, they lock the doors of their homes. People take such precautions even with rules, laws, and officers tasked specifically with their physical safety and that of their property.
Hobbes’s contention that people in nature are “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short” is the most quoted line in all of Leviathan. The question of the state of humans in nature has always been a hot topic in philosophy, and Hobbes believes people are naturally unpleasant and violent. This opinion is contrary to other philosophers, like Aristotle (384-322 BCE), John Locke (1632-1704), and Jean-Jacque Rousseau (1712-1788), who all argue humans are naturally social and helpful.
Themes
Literary Devices
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The desires and passions that produce such savagery in people is in itself no sin, nor are the actions that come from such passions. Actions are only considered a sin when they go against some established law, and such laws cannot be established without first electing someone to make and enact them. Thus, nothing in nature is unjust, as the notions of right and wrong and justice and injustice do not exist in nature. Where there is no common power, there can be no common law; and where there is no common law, there can be no injustice.
This passage is the core of Hobbes’s argument concerning the cause of humankind’s transition from nature to civil society. The violence and war that plagues nature will never cease and can’t be escaped because there is no common power to stop it. In short, people moved out of nature and into civil society precisely to create this power and stop the violence and endless fear that is nature.
Themes
Passions that predispose people to peace include the fear of death, the desire for things that are necessary for life (like food and shelter), and the hope to obtain such vital necessities. People are drawn to agreements or contracts that ensure peace, which Hobbes refers to as the Laws of Nature.
The Laws of Nature are not naturally existing laws that are automatically followed by all. Rather, the Laws of Nature are rules that naturally exist in nature and must be followed to make nature a peaceful place. Of course, as nature does not have a central power, these laws are generally ignored.
Themes
